Suspect In Delray Holdup Ordered Held Without Bail

A convicted bank robber who FBI agents said held up a Delray Beach savings and loan and took the manager hostage was ordered held without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate.

Ernest Gail Lail, 46, of Miami, who has twice been convicted of bank robbery, pleaded not guilty to charges of bank robbery and taking a hostage and was ordered to remain in federal custody by U.S. Magistrate Ann E. Vitunac.

``I find that Mr. Lail is in fact a danger to the community,`` Vitunac said.

Lail was arrested Dec. 23 in Dade County after leading FBI agents on a chase through a North Miami neighborhood, according to investigators.

Earlier this week, Lail was indicted by a federal grand jury, which charged him with the Dec. 20 robbery of the AmeriFirst Savings and Loan Association office at 1550 S. Federal Highway in Delray Beach.

He also was charged with forcing the branch manager to accompany him out of the bank at gunpoint.

Lail, according to FBI agents, has spent most of the last 17 years in federal prisons on bank robbery charges and was most recently released from a corrections facility in Tennessee in September.

Security was tight during the hearing Thursday as each person entering the courtroom in West Palm Beach was searched. Officials said the additional security was a precautionary measure taken because of the seriousness of the charges against Lail.

During the hearing, federal prosecutor Karen Atkinson cited Lail`s prior record while arguing that the suspect should not be released on bail.

``The man is a dangerous man,`` Atkinson said. ``Every time he is released, he robs a bank.``

FBI agents said Lail was first arrested in 1968 and charged with robbing a North Carolina bank. He was convicted of that robbery, according to agents, and sentenced to 30 years. In 1978, according to the FBI, he was released, but in 1979, he was arrested again for robbing a bank in Charlotte, N.C. He served six years of a 20-year sentence before being released in September.

Investigators who arrested Lail on the latest charge said they believe Lail walked into the Delray Beach savings and loan association shortly before 6 p.m on Dec. 20, and approached the manager. Once inside the manager`s office, according to a affidavit on file in U.S. District Court, the robber opened a briefcase and displayed what he said was an explosive device.

Agents said the man, who also had a gun, threatened to blow up the branch office if the manager tried to alert police.

Bank employees, according to the affidavit, turned over $14,000 to the robber who then ordered the manager to walk out of the bank with him.

Agents said a witness saw the bandit getting into a car, which police said was registered to Lail`s Miami address.

Agents, according to investigators, went to Miami to arrest Lail after five witnesses picked his picture out of a photo line-up. A short chase ensued and ended when Lail`s car slammed into a street sign.

In testimony Thursday, agents said they found what they believe was a detonator in Lail`s car and also have recovered a gun found in Lail`s possession at the time of his arrest.

Atkinson said Lail faces a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted of taking a hostage. The bank robbery charge, she said, carries a maximum 25-year sentence.